My geese. Who would have thought we would be so close.

I am fairly new to geese. We raised a wild Canada Goose in 2010, but he flew away in the fall last year.

I never knew how close of a relationship we could have. I assumed they would be like ducks (a bit stand-off-ish and a preference to be amongst themselves). Every morning my Tufted Buff "barks" at me and my White Danish off key honks. They will walk with me whenever I am out on the yard and always respond when I talk to them. I am still unsure on the sex of them. They have not been doing any kind of "moves" in the pond (unlike a few of my ducks the same age). They are about the same size with my White Danish maybe being a smidge taller. If any of you have these breeds how would you tell the sex?

Geese are very special. They don't "forget" you when they are mature, you will always be their parent. They seem to have very developed relationship skills for such simple critters, especially if you hand raise them from hatch. Many people have them as pets because they are as devoted to you as a good dog, and are affectionate in their own way.

My gander Petey is two and a half years old, and believes he owns the place, but when I walk in the yard, he runs for me and makes baby noises until I bend over and let him chew on my hair. He'd done this since he was a day old. If I sit in the yard he will sit near me and "guard" me from intruders (ie, chickens, the dog, the ducks). He will also spend as much time as I'll let him "doing my hair". He's almost made a dread lock a couple of times, very VERY hard to comb out

ITA Kim65. My geese are my protectors, they guard me when I am outside D. They even semi-guard the ducks. Obviously they wouldn't be much of a match for a predator so I let them think they are helping out. I hand rasied them from the time they were 1 day old. I kept them in my garage for a couple months and would talk to them all and see them multiple times a day. Now that they have more freedom outside we don't quite spend as much time together but we are still close. I know in the winter time when it is very cold I will probably be only able to visit them 1-2x a day. I will probably start keeping them inside their pen constantly around the end of October. The pond will start freezing over by then and the foxes will be in full fatten up mode. I hate the fact that they will be penned up for 5 or 6 months but there is no other way. They still have access to outside and everything but no access to bathing water. When the temperature is -25 or -30 and they hop into water their feathers freeze and then they get huge chunks of poo stuck to their butts.

I have not found a way around the frozen feathersissus and access to bathing water in the winter solution. This sucks because come spring they are so dirty and their feathers are not as waterproof anymore so they get water logged so quickly.

Anyway..I enjoy my flock a lot. I never thought that owning a non traditional pet could be so wonderful. The geese are so much fun and I want to get more and more!